Revista Latina de Comunicación Social # 071 – Pages 1.108 to 1.130 [Research] | DOI: 10.4185/RLCS-2016-1137en | ISSN 1138-5820 | Year 2016
How to cite this article in bibliographies / References C Costa-Sánchez, M Túñez-López, JJ Videla-Rodríguez (2016): “Spanish hospitals in the social web. The management of Facebook and Twitter by Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (Barcelona)”. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 71, pp. 1.108 to 1.130. http://www.revistalatinacs.org/071/paper/1137/57-en.html DOI: 10.4185/RLCS-2016-1137en
Spanish hospitals in the social web. The management of Facebook and Twitter by Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (Barcelona) C Costa-Sánchez [CV] [ ORCID] [ GS] School of Communication Sciences. Universidade da Coruña (UDC) / University of A Coruña, Spain -
[email protected] M Túñez-López [CV] [ ORCID] [ GS] School of Communication Sciences. Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC) / University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
[email protected] JJ Videla-Rodríguez [CV] [ ORCID] [ GS] School of Communication Sciences. Universidade da Coruña (UDC) / University of A Coruña, Spain -
[email protected]
Abstract Introduction. This article examines the presence of the best-ranked Spanish hospitals in the participative Web and delves into this subject matter based on the case study of Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (Barcelona). The objective is twofold: to diagnose the general adoption of social media and to assess the use of Facebook and Twitter by one of the most prominent hospitals in Spain. Methods. The study is based on the combination of a transversal descriptive and observational study with the content analysis of the case study. Results and conclusions. Only 50% of Spanish hospitals use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as communication channels. This percentage decreases to less than 30% for the rest of social media. The hospital under analysis acts as a health educator in its main social networks 2.0. The posts with the greatest social impact are those related to sensitive issues, as well as to individual and social solidarity projects that involve the own network of the agent in question. Keywords Hospital communication; Web 2.0; Hospitals; Health communication; Facebook; Twitter.
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Revista Latina de Comunicación Social # 071 – Pages 1.108 to 1.130 [Research] | DOI: 10.4185/RLCS-2016-1137en | ISSN 1138-5820 | Year 2016 Contents 1. State of the art review. Hospitals in the Web 2.0. 2. Methods. 3. Results. 3.1. General evaluation of the situation. 3.2. Case study: Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (Barcelona). 3.2.1. Temporary strategy on Twitter and Facebook. 3.2.2. Content strategy on Twitter. 3.2.3. Content strategy on Facebook. 4. Discussion and conclusions. 5. References.
Translation by CA Martínez-Arcos (PhD in Communication from the University of London, United Kingdom)
1. State of the art review. Hospitals in the Web 2.0 Hospitals are health institutions dedicated to assist, research and, in some cases, teach and educating on medical issues and healthy life styles (Costa-Sánchez, 2011). As an organisation, a hospital should adapt itself to the changes that take place around it, which will be better achieved if it incorporates the communication function with professionalism and transversality (Costa-Sánchez, 2009). As González Borjas (2004) explains, it was in the 1990s when Spanish public hospitals began to incorporate communication management among their priorities to reach citizens more directly and, at the same time, enjoy the benefits of having a positive corporate image. Under the current environment, where the Internet and the tools and applications of the Web 2.0 are part of our everyday life, hospitals can interact with their audiences through these new channels and to strengthen their role as agents of health communication on the web (Costa-Sánchez, 2012; Pacanowski & Medina-Aguerrebere, 2011). Users are getting used to resort to the Internet to consult information about health (ONTSI, 2012; Van De Belt et al., 2013). From eating habits to specific symptoms, multiple online sources provide health-related content. The controversy revolves around the credibility of such sources, and for this reason different systems of accreditation are being developed for websites and apps to help citizens to identify the sources they can trust (Sánchez Bocanegra & Sánchez Laguna, 2012; Fernández Silano, 2013). So far, the patient is the one who takes the initiative and goes to the hospital to obtain information. Now, in the context of health 2.0, hospitals can knock at users’ doors to teach them how to take care of themselves (Custodio-López, 2011). According to the Lalonde system, lifestyle factors are the most crucial in the state of health at the individual and collective levels in developed countries (Colomer & Álvarez-Dardet, 2006). This implies that health-related communication activities are very important to change harmful habits and behaviours (Schiavo, 2007; Díaz, 2012; Bates, 2014). However, recent studies have revealed that a significant percentage of Spanish hospitals do not have websites and those who do, are not optimising them as platforms of information of interest for their audiences. The study of Arencibia-Jimenez & Aibar-Remón (2007), which analysed the websites of different samples of Spanish and American hospitals, indicated that most hospitals in Spain do not have a website and that of those who do, only few provide useful information for users or patients. Díaz Cuenca (2007) offers a similar diagnosis, as his study found out that not all the important hospitals from provincial capital cities had a website. The study of Doblas Arrebola (2008)
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Revista Latina de Comunicación Social # 071 – Pages 1.108 to 1.130 [Research] | DOI: 10.4185/RLCS-2016-1137en | ISSN 1138-5820 | Year 2016 concluded that the websites of most hospitals are managed by non-professional staff and do not consider how information is transmitted and do not have quality criteria. Calvo-Calvo (2014) points out that the quality of the websites of large Spanish hospitals is low. With regards to the use of social media, according to Van De Belt et al. (2012), the group of hospitals from Western European countries that employ such tools is reduced and more research is needed in this regard. According to Vanzetta et al. (2014), in a study carried out in Italy, less than 8% of public local hospitals and health authorities have accounts or profiles in social media. The studies of Griffis et al. (2014) and Richter et al. (2014) on American hospitals, indicate that the hospitals with more activity in social media are large private and non-profit, urban hospitals. The research of Huang and Dunbar (2013) concludes that Facebook and Twitter generate a low interaction when used as marketing tools. Farabough’s analysis (2013) points out that the posts that generate higher engagement are those about the stories of patients. According to Fernández-Luque & Bau (2015), health organisations are belatedly joining this dynamic and large institutions and health agencies still have much to do educate on health and to open up more direct lines of communication with users (in Gabarrón & Fernández-Luque, 2012). The work of Bermúdez-Tamayo et al. (2013) found out that in Spain the largest centres use social networks more frequently, as well as in the public centres (19%, p
